Looking to improve your night photography? We have 7 tips for capturing sharp, intriguing, and well balanced photos.

1. Use a Wide Aperture

Using a wide aperture (a lower F stop number) allows enough light in to be able to capture more details. Lower aperture allows light to hit the sensor .

2. Slow Your Shutter Speed

Slowing your shutter speed will also allow more light hit the sensor but with a slower shutter speed also comes the risk of unwanted motion blur. There are ways to minimize this unwanted motion blur, you would do so by mounting your camera to a tripod and even using a timer to make sure there isn’t any risk of motion blur from accidentally shaking the camera.

Here are two examples of my night photography. The first photo was shot with an aperture of F/5 and a shutter speed of 1″ second. While the second photo shows long exposure night photography, this focused on a low shutter speed at 1.5″ seconds.

3. Use Tripod or Stabilization

Tripods are a needed asset with shooting lowlight photography and long exposure shots. This will reduce the motion blur and allow the slow shutter speed to let light in.

4. Increase ISO

Increasing your ISO should be your last resort when shooting photos at night and lowlight conditions. Increasing your ISO can cause your photos to have noise. The higher you increase your ISO the more noise you will get in your photo. ISO will help lighten your photo but you will lose data the higher you go.

5. Shoot in RAW

Shooting in RAW settings will allow your camera to record more detail than a JPEG file would. RAW files record a wider color range as well as shadows. This will allow you more room to edit and play with your settings in post production.

6. Utilize Light Around You

Use lights in your background to add emotion and drama to your photos. Use car headlights, streetlights, phones, flashlights, etc. Honestly, utilize anything that can produce light and you can pull out emotion in any setting.

7. Edit

Edit to reduce noise and motion blur as well as brightening, sharpening, and adding emotion to your photos.

With these night photography tips you can learn how to shoot photos at night ands learn the skills needed to capture the emotions in every moment.